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AI is everywhere. It can be problematic for students, professionals, and everyone in between because it’s hard to prove what was written by AI – and what wasn’t.
That could cause serious problems.
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That confusion could be intensified when your words are used to train AI. Who’s to say someone might use generative AI to write a paper, only to find your words were used in the process?
You can see how that could spiral out of control, right?
How do you avoid it?
If you use Google Docs or MS Office and Grammarly, there’s a new feature that could be of assistance. That feature is called Track Your Work, and it’s now built right into Grammarly. Even better, the feature is available in the free Grammarly account.
What does Track Your Work do?
Essentially, this feature automatically records proof of your writing activity for all new Google and Word Docs. It’s important to understand that this feature is only for new documents. If you open a document that has already been written, you cannot enable the feature because, well, that document has already been written or is in the process of being written.
This feature is a part of Grammarly Authorship, which enables you to demonstrate your sources of text in either a Google Doc or Microsoft Word document. Once you enable the feature, Authorship tracks your writing process and automatically categorizes the source of text as you type.
It’s simple to use and should be considered a must for anyone who wants to always have proof that they are the author of a document.
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How to use Grammarly Authorship
What you’ll need: To use Grammarly Authorship, you’ll need a Grammarly account (you can use the free version) and either a new Google or MS Word document. One factor to keep in mind is that this only works within your web browser, so you can’t use Authorship if you’re working with MS Office locally installed.
As I mentioned, this is a key step. You have to open a brand new Google or Office document; otherwise, Authorship won’t work.
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At the bottom left of the new document, you’ll see what looks like a fingerprint icon. If you click that icon, a pop-up appears where you can click the On/Off slider to enable Track Your Work.
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If you have a Pro account, you can also use this to check for AI & plagerism.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Once you’ve enabled the feature, a See The Report button appears. You can click that button at any time to view the report.
I decided to pull a fast one on Grammarly and copy and paste this document into a new document that had Track Your Work enabled. Lo and behold, the work came up as 100% copied.
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That’s right, I copied my own work to prove a point.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
I then deleted the copied text and typed a sentence to see how Grammarly would react. A quick click on the Report button and Grammarly informed me that the content was all fresh and new.
This time around, the work is all fresh and new.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Huzzah.
But what can you do with that report?
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If you click the “Share report” button, a new pop-up appears. Click the On/Off slider until it’s in the On position, and you’ll be presented with a link you can copy and share with anyone who needs to know that your work was 100% you. Send that link to your teacher, boss, editor, publisher, or whoever needs to know that you didn’t use AI to create your document.
And that’s all there is to proving that you are the one true author of whatever document it is that you created.
